Workers' Cooperatives: A New Way of Creating Commercial Games

No Bosses Required!

Many workers in the game industry cope with the less-than-ideal working
conditions by dreaming of one day starting their own business and "becoming
their own boss." And it makes sense! Who wants to be exploited for someone
else's profits when you could start your own studio and earn the full benefit of
your labour?

Game workers are also particularly lucky that they work in an industry where
starting your own game studio, although far from being accessible to everyone,
is much easier than, say, starting your own car factory as an auto worker. Game
studios need much less starting capital — no expensive machinery or raw
materials are required.

The problem with the traditional "startup" model, however, is that it
inevitably tends to replicate the worst problems of the existing game
industry. The few founders who are lucky enough to launch a successful
business might never need to get a job working for someone else ever again, but
it will be at the expense of the workers they hire as employees as their
business expands. Their employees will be the ones now working for their
profits, thus reproducing the relationship of exploitation that is found
everywhere else in the industry.

But it doesn't have to be that way! This is where workers' cooperatives come
in: workers' co-ops are businesses that are fully and democratically owned
by the people who work there. Nobody in a workers' co-op is working to create
profits for some shareholder, and everyone can earn the full value of their
labour. When the co-op expands, new workers become worker-owners, as opposed to
merely being employees hired by separate business owners. Many people who start
a business don't even know that this is an option!

There are already multiple examples of workers' cooperatives operating in the
game industry, such as Pixel Pushers Union 512 and Motion Twin (the
creators of Dead Cells). And two of the creators of Night in the Woods have
just launched a workers' cooperative called The Glory Society. Cooperatives
can also be a great model for freelance workers, who can benefit from uniting
under a single banner to sell their services.

There are many kinds of organizations that call themselves "cooperatives", which
is why we emphasize that we're talking about workers' co-ops here. You may
also have heard of "consumer co-ops," which are owned by the consumers (such as
REI in the United States or MEC in Canada), but those can be just as
exploitative to their employees as any other business. There are even some
business owners' associations that style themselves as "cooperatives" — but in
actuality they're nothing more than cartels of bosses; employees have no say in
how they are run. (In the Québec game industry, for instance, a group called La
Guilde has gotten significant media attention and funding and now proudly
claims to be the "largest cooperative in this industry in the
world.") This can get pretty confusing and might be
worth highlighting, especially when discussing the possibility of starting a
workers' co-op with fellow game workers who might never have heard of that
business model.

So how do you go about starting a workers' cooperative? Game
Workers Unite is here to help, and can put you in touch with the legal
assistance you need to found such a business with your fellow workers!
Unfortunately, most business lawyers who help people form startups have no
experience with co-ops. They're often used to just signing people up for the
standard corporate model instead, so having access to specialized advice can be
a big help in forming a co-op. The details also vary from place to place, but
starting a co-op is an option everywhere. Another thing to keep in mind is that
venture capitalists will not want to invest in a workers' cooperative, since
they can't become external shareholders and reap in the profits from your work -
so they will always focus on pressuring aspiring entrepreneurs to start
traditional corporate startups instead. That said, workers' co-ops are still
perfectly eligible for business loans, and credit unions often have especially
favorable deals for them!

So if you're considering starting a business or know game workers who are,
contact your local GWU chapter
(or the international if you don't have one yet) and ask them about workers'
co-ops!